Dennis Kelly is Executive Vice President at Graham Architectural Products, working in general management with concentrations in Risk Management, Engineering and Quality. His company custom engineers commercial and architectural windows and doors. We sat down with Dennis to ask about his long career and what his time in the industry has taught him.Give a brief history of your professional background and how you originally became involved in the industry.I have a BS in Mechanical Engineering. My first job out of college was with Seasonal Industries...

The 2019 Joint AAMA and IGMA Summer Conferences are almost here. This event is happening June 17-20, but there is still time to register. By nature of being a combined event, members of both associations can expect to gain even more value from the presentations and content than they do by attending independent AAMA or IGMA events.Over on the Member Edge blog, AAMA Meetings Manager Florence Nicolici wrote about the many advantages of these two conferences being combined. Now, as the event draws closer, I’d...

Will New York City “ban” all-glass curtain wall skyscrapers as part of its Green New Deal? Or will it push for codes and regulations requiring more energy efficient buildings that may help boost demand for more sustainable building designs and fenestration products? Those questions are on the minds of the building design, construction and fenestration industries today.On Earth Day, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced a “Green New Deal,” aimed at reducing NYC’s emissions by 30 percent by 2030. Approved by the New...

One part of my role as AAMA’s Communications Coordinator is to monitor a range of industry news sites for information that may be worth sharing with our members. I do this by subscribing to a number of industry newsletters, signing up for Google Alerts for key terms and checking out their websites regularly. And luckily, most of those sites have excellent, frequently updated Twitter accounts, too. I follow several industry news accounts on Twitter so I can scan AAMA’s Twitter feed with ease to see what’s new.

Earth Day is a moment to recognize the importance of our environment, and in AAMA’s case, what those in the fenestration industry are doing to protect it. Sustainability remains a crucial issue in our work, and AAMA remains committed to the efforts of ENERGY STAR®. To this end, AAMA collaborates each year with the Environmental Protection Agency, which oversees ENERGY STAR, and research company Ducker Worldwide to receive updated information about the ENERGY STAR and ENERGY STAR Most Efficient Windows Programs.ENERGY STAR is a voluntary...

This June, two industry associations and their memberships will meet for one combined event in Victoria, British Columbia for the Joint AAMA and IGMA Summer Conferences. Last year, the leaders of AAMA and IGMA announced the possibility of unifying the two associations, and a vote among both organizations’ members will take place in July. Leading up to that vote, this joint event will give members of each association a chance to experience each other’s conference and have questions about unification addressed. Plus, as an added...

A couple years ago, I wrote about how advertising on podcasts can help companies reach a new audience. I wanted to revisit this topic, with a focus on reaching a market of relatively newer homeowners: Millennials.According to Edison Research, in 2016, 38 percent of millennials aged 18-34 listen to podcasts. Considering my fellow Millennials are a generation of cord cutters, traditional advertising on TV, local markets or national, isn’t the best way to reach out anymore. We’re paying for the ad-free version of Hulu and...

We all know how much emphasis our industry puts on plant safety, and rightly so – safety in manufacturing is a critical matter. However, it’s just as important to get safety information and awareness to customers. That’s why AAMA is actively involved in the promotion of window safety. Take time this spring to share window safety tips with your customers during Window Safety Week, the first full week of April (April 7-13 this year). The pre-designed 2019 Window Safety Week Tool Kit makes it easy...

It’s that time of year. After a brutal winter, people long to open windows to let in fresh air. And, at this time of year, many of us are also hard at work honing building code proposals.AAMA’s commitment to window safety is at work year-round through our proactive support of building codes. Window safety comes into play in a number of ways in today’s building codes. For example, in the Seventh Edition, 2020 Florida Building Code (FBC) discussion now in progress, AAMA opposes F 7662....

This is an updated version of a blog post that originally ran in April 2017.They say March comes in like a lion and out like a lamb – we are still in the lion days, but at least it is almost spring. This change of seasons means it’s almost time for warm weather and open windows letting in fresh air. It also means it is time to brush up on some window safety tips, since open windows can be dangerous for young children who are...